This application relates generally to telecommunications. More specifically, this application relates to dynamically derived information used in establishing telecommunications connections.
The telephone communications system arguably represents the most fundamental of modem telecommunications systems. It operates by providing a mechanism for establishing audio communications links between parties. Over time, the manner in which such connections have been established has changed, offering greater flexibility to users of the systems.
For example, when telephone networks were initially established, connections would be made by a telephone operator who would have access to a board in which physical wires could be plugged. Upon receiving a request from user, the telephone operator would identify the connection required and physically complete it by plugging into this board. Over time, this process became automated with the use of “telephone numbers.” As is well known, these numbers act as identifiers of network endpoints with which connections may be made. In a traditional system, a user would “dial” a telephone using a rotary mechanism that would generate pulses corresponding to the telephone number. The originating telephone would be connected to an originating network endpoint and the dialed telephone number would identify a recipient network endpoint. This permitted automated apparatus to establish a connection between the originating and recipient network endpoints, with human parties being able to exchange audio communications using the telephones connected to the network endpoints.
This system developed further with the introduction of dual-tone multifrequency
(“DTMF”) tones that permitted the identifying telephone numbers to be transmitted as a sequence of tones. Because telephones equipped to generate such tones generally had push buttons corresponding to certain tone pairs, such tones are sometimes referred to in common parlance as “touch tones.” Briefly, each touch tone consists of two overlaid tones of different frequencies, the combination of the two frequencies uniquely defining a corresponding number. Usually, each of the two frequencies for each touch tone has a first component drawn from a first set of four frequencies and a second component drawn from a second, distinct, set of four frequencies, thereby defining sixteen possible touch tones.
As memory capabilities of telephones equipped to generate DTMF tones developed, predefined sequences of tones could be stored in memory and generated by a user identifying which particular sequence was desired. This technique is still commonly used and is manifested in the form of a “speed dial list,” which may be maintained locally at a user location or may sometimes be performed at a typical telephone switch. Each sequence of tones comprised by the speed dial list generally corresponds to a telephone number that has been input by a user of the telephone and corresponds to a number that the user wishes to have the device remember, either because of the frequency with which the number is used or because of the importance of that particular number. There are a variety of different ways in which the speed dial list may be accessed: some telephones have individual buttons corresponding to each number in the speed dial list; other telephones require the user to enter a tone sequence (say, “* 7”) to access the speed dial list, followed by a numerical identifier of which number to use. A user of the telephone may then call desired parties simply by accessing the speed dial list. This may both provide some time savings to make calls quickly and permits the user to contact desired parties without the need for remembering their telephone numbers or having to look them up in a personal or public directory.
While this arrangement has found wide utility among users of telephones, it is inherently limiting because it is entirely static. The numbers in the speed dial list are those that have been directly input by the user. But as the user's circumstances change over time, the telephone numbers that he accesses most frequently also change—certain parties that may have been contacted frequently in the past are later contacted only infrequently, if at all; parties may have moved and acquire new telephone numbers; the user may transfer his business to a provider that provides better financial terms; the user meets new people who he begins to contact frequently; and the like. With such traditional arrangements, keeping the speed dial list current is the responsibility of the user, and this is a task that is frequently neglected by users. Indeed, users may not even be directly aware as it is happening that their calling patterns are in flux, with recognition of changes occurring only once new patterns have been established. But these new patterns themselves are equally ephemeral and will soon be out of date as circumstances continue to change.
More recently, some cellular telephones have implemented functions that retain a list of most recently called numbers. Such a list has some utility, but suffers from a number of drawbacks of purely static lists. In particular, such lists function by continually dropping off the last number on the list and replacing it with the most recently called number, thus also failing to account for the calling patterns of the user. If a user has an issue that requires calling several new numbers even only a single time to address, they will displace the frequently called numbers from the list despite their unique character.
There is accordingly a general need in the art for methods and systems for establishing telecommunications connections that are not limited by such mechanisms.